My Grown-Up (Nursing) Christmas List

[VivaLasViejas]

1. A heated shiatsu foot massager. I didn't even know they existed until yesterday when I was doing a little 'retail therapy' and saw the thing on display at Costco. I tried it out and promptly fell asleep in the chair...imagine how this little machine would feel on your feet after the ubiquitous shift-from-Hell and your significant other would rather eat a live chicken than rub them for you.
2. A year's supply of Depends for the middle-aged nurse on the 'go'. (Sorry, couldn't resist being punny.)
3. Gift card/certificate to a good shoe store...the more expensive, the better. As in Dansko, Z-Coil, Birkenstock et. al. Nothing is more precious---or harder to find---that the right pair of work shoes. Besides, if we had great footwear, we probably wouldn't need item #1.
4. An iPod Shuffle. It's so small that we can clip it inside a scrub pocket and listen to music virtually undetected. This is very useful in drowning out the cacophony that results when a patient, her physician, and eleven family members are screaming at us all at once...
5. Here's an idea for the cost-conscious: Bubble wrap! Especially the larger sizes that pop easily and make a satisfying sound when they do. There is absolutely nothing (short of getting completely trashed on Long Island Iced Teas, that is) that is more effective at relieving the stress associated with nursing. I'm only half-kidding...when I was the director of nursing in an assisted living facility, my staff always knew to step lightly whenever they heard what sounded like overamped popcorn coming from the general direction of my office.
6. A year's subscription to almost any periodical that doesn't have anything to do with our profession. The last thing we want to thumb through on that rare day off is a publication containing the words "health care".......which eliminates Time and Newsweek, as well as all women's' magazines and the local newspaper. (I'm thinking Playgirl here, but that's just me.)
7. A case of chemical de-icer for those frosty nights when we leave the workplace dead tired, only to be confronted with an inch-thick coating of ice on the windshield and the prospect of half an hour of chipping away at it with a credit card. I don't give a hang what the tree-hugger types have to say about it: if they don't want us to use the stuff, they can come and chip the ice off our cars while we wait inside a warm place with a cup of cocoa.
8. Oh, and "Santa", if there's any room left in your goodie bag, there isn't a nurse on the planet who couldn't use an all-expenses-paid vacation in a tropical paradise where there are no call lights, ringing phones, micromanaging managers, impatient patients, bullying doctors, nasty smells, or double shifts.
9. In fact, scratch the rest of the list...I'll take #8!!!!!

[Midwest4me]

I'd like a 2-week cruise to the mexican riviera (we have plans to take a hawaiian cruise in 1.5 years for our 25th wedding anniversary).........

[cmonkey]

and for me -- i'll take a group of brand new nurses who don't all insist upon having christmas off this year and every year. oh, and new year's, thanksgiving, easter, mother's day and the fourth of july!

am i like the only person on the planet who doesn't mind working holidays? yes, i'd like one of them off in the list, but i really don't care which one. i mean, don't make me work all of them, please. but really, what's the big deal? can't celebrate thanksgiving on friday? can't open presents on christmas eve? it's too cold here to hunt for eggs, so easter's no big deal. i don't give a rip for mother's day (and i have three kids), and the fourth? i'm generally asleep before the fireworks start.

omg. am i a curmudgeon?!

[tewdles, RN]

I am looking for a new bladder control device that completely eliminates the need to urinate during a 10 hour shift. Puleeeze Santa

[TankerBug]

I will be a new grad next year, and just for the record, I would gladly work every New Year's (Eve and Day), Thanksgiving (the whole darned weekend), Mother's Day, Valentine's, Easter, Fourth of July, etc for the rest of my life! -as long as I have Christmas off. :)

This is exactly how I feel. I just want Christmas off, for the sake of my boys who are 4. This year I am the only HCP on my unit who is working 2 major and 2 minor holidays of the 5 total for the winter holidays. Major holidays are Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. Minor are Christmas eve, and New Years Eve. I'm an HCP in the MICU, and am in nursing school. I'm willing to work all the others just to have Christmas off!

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

I am looking for a new bladder control device that completely eliminates the need to urinate during a 10 hour shift. Puleeeze Santa

There already is such a device. It's called a Foley.

[Midwest4me]

am i like the only person on the planet who doesn't mind working holidays? yes, i'd like one of them off in the list, but i really don't care which one. i mean, don't make me work all of them, please. but really, what's the big deal? can't celebrate thanksgiving on friday? can't open presents on christmas eve? it's too cold here to hunt for eggs, so easter's no big deal. i don't give a rip for mother's day (and i have three kids), and the fourth? i'm generally asleep before the fireworks start.

omg. am i a curmudgeon?!

i don't mind working some of the holidays either. the kids are grown with their own kids and seldom visit so it's just my hubby and me but i don't think anyone should have to work them all--it's a plus where i work since we get time and a half on the holidays and some people still call in ill on the holidays anyway! many years than i care to count(while the kids were at home)we've celebrated thanksgiving on friday--that gets tiresome after awhile!

[nebrgirl]

CMonkey, I'm kind of with you, Thanksgiving is the only day the who family gathers....after that give me the holiday pay, work just as hard, make more money...that in my world is a no brainer.

[psalm, RN]

I don't mind working holidays. We should be willing to share. Some just want to share less than others...

[Lupan]

4 wheel mag instead of "playgirl" and a place where single nurses are not expected to work all holidays and at the drop of a hat. And for all my fellow nurses: Blessings without measure...............

[Spidey's mom, ADN, BSN, RN]

I don't mind working holidays. We should be willing to share. Some just want to share less than others...

I just always signed up for NY's Eve and NY's Day and left the other holidays blank . . .seems like the younger folks want NY's off and so I usually got T-giving or Christmas off.

I agree with the sharing concept.

steph

[psalm, RN]

Yes, Lupan...it amazes me. I've been married almost 35 years, and all the jobs I've had, were ones that weekends and most holidays we were open. Just because a co-worker isn't married or childless doesn't make their needs any less. Be fair for everyone.

[mcknis]

just hoping Santa comes to visit staff in the hospital. will be there Christmas day, thanksgiving and New Years. will like those checks!